Alex Taylor - Book 4 Update

Well, happy spring everyone. The birds are chirping; the grass is turning green, weather is utterly bi-polar, and yours truly is camped out behind his desk, putting the finishing work on the latest Alex Taylor novel.

It feels like forever since I published a new book and, truth be told, it isn’t that far off. The last book I released was The Crazy Eight Cowboys novella in January 2021. I regret the delay, but 2021 was a year of challenges for us. What started out as a simple house flip grew into a monster and consumed almost the entire year for us. Thankfully, we could sell the home in December, so we have closed that chapter of our life.

Since then, I have been back at work writing and I can happily report that I have finished the first draft of the latest Alex Taylor novel (title TBD) and it is presently in editing. Barring any unforeseen events, I should be able to release it this April.

I know many of you are waiting on the next James Maguire novel, as well as the follow-up book in the Crystal Coven series. All I can say is, please be patient with me; they are coming.

Tools for Writers - ProWritingAid

I rarely endorse any products, but I recently came across one called ProWritingAid that has improved the way I write.

I wrote my first NYPD novel, Perfect Pawn, in 2012. Back then, my creative writing training comprised everything I had forgotten in school and the ungodly amounts of reports I had written during my police career. Not exactly a solid foundation to become an author, but I had a story to tell and I enjoyed writing them. Eight years later I have written thirteen books that span three different fictional series’ and several non-fiction works.

Over the years I have improved as a writer, but in the beginning I got blasted frequently by reviewers. While the found the books enjoyable, they took exception to the grammatical errors in my earlier works. What can I say besides mea culpa? As I said, I’m a story-teller, not an English major, but that doesn’t mean I am ignorant when it comes to acknowledging my weaknesses. So I did the best I could, taking the criticisms to heart and trying to learn on my own.

As an aspiring author, you learn several hard truths. The first is that this game is rig against you. Those lucky enough to get a publishing contract get access to a wide variety of tools that help them deliver a polished product, including editing services. Indies can also accomplish that, but it comes out of their pocket.

Here’s a rate schedule put out by the Editorial Freelancers Association in 2008:

Basic copyediting: $25 to $40 per hour Pace: 5 to 10 pages an hour
Heavy copyediting: $35 to $50 per hour Pace: 2 to 5 pages an hour
Substantive editing: $40 to $65 per hour Pace: 1 to 6 pages per hour (also called line editing)
Developmental editing: $50 to $80 per hour Pace: 2 to 5 pages per hour

For argument’s sake, let us assume that an Indie author produces a 350 page book. Even with the most basic editing, it will probably run them around $2k. This means that they will have to sell over 1k books before they realize any profit. If you add in the cost for a cover and formatting, it will be a lot more.

I found myself in the same literary boat. While I had the ability to design my own covers, and taught myself formatting, I floundered in the area of editing. I tried to get the help of others, more knowledgeable in grammar, including an English teacher, but it wasn’t enough.

About a year ago, I came across a link for a program called ProWritingAid. Admittedly, I was skeptical at first, but since it was a onetime fee, I bit the bullet and tried it. I figured the worse it could be was a tax deduction at the end of the year. I ran my first novel, Perfect Pawn, through it and sat back. Now mind you, I had been ‘editing’ this book for nearly seven years. Every time I would get a negative review I would go back and do another review to fix the mistakes.  At the point I ran it through the ProWritingAid summary program. I thought the book was pretty solid, clearly I was wrong.

What the results showed was that my overall score, after all those edits, was only a 77 out of 100. On top of that, my grammar was an 81 and my style was an abysmal 56. It felt like I got kicked in the guts.

I sat down and began reviewing each chapter, doing my best to make corrections, while not impacting the story. In the end, I improved my overall to a 93 and my grammar to a 99. I wish it were perfect, but you will never be 100 percent. After all, in one of George R. R. Martin’s professionally published / edited book there is a sentence that says they “raped the windows”……….. Ouch.

As indie authors, we must always look to improve, not just for ourselves, but for the readers experiences as well. I firmly believe that ProWritingAid can do that, so much so that I have gone back and have begun re-editing all of my books using this program. Not only is it going to help with your grammar and spelling, but it will also show you the words you use too much.

If you are an author, on a limited budget, I suggest that you give it a try. I’m sure you will find it to be a worthwhile investment.

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Best wishes, Stay Safe, & God Bless.

Andrew

Dealing with the Issue of Critical Reviews

Being an author means you have to constantly question and reevaluate your writing, especially when it is based on reader feedback and reviews. If you don’t, then you risk committing the same mistakes going forward. Acting on constructive criticism, even when it bruises your ego, can mean the difference between staying a mediocre author and becoming a great one.

Bad reviews are part of the game and you have to learn how to deal with them. The truth is your book will not be a perfect fit for every reader. I know I have read some books I considered a challenge to finish. The thought of leaving a bad review didn’t cross my mind because I felt that it was a personal thing. Just because I didn’t connect with the book, didn’t mean others wouldn’t. I look at James Patterson’s first Alex Cross novel, Along Came a Spider, which has more 1-star reviews than all reviews combined of my debut novel, Perfect Pawn.

I have had some scathing reviews in the past about my editing, or lack thereof, such as this one 1-star review:

‘The author has a message and a knack for plot. Unfortunately, what he doesn't have is an editor.’ 

I liked the first part, but inwardly cringed on the second. Interestingly enough, the aforementioned Patterson book also got slammed in a review for grammar and typos. Being compared to James Patterson wouldn’t be a bad thing, except in this case.

I will not lie, a bad review hurts; a lot. You can’t help but take it personally. It’s the literary equivalent of someone saying your child’s ugly.

I’d like to say they were wrong, but the reality is they were right. The problem with being an indie author is that the vast majority of the time you are it. This means, besides writing, you also wear a multitude of other publishing hats. I don’t believe the average reader understands the financial costs of publishing your books, not that this is an excuse, but it is a legitimate roadblock for many indie authors.

Consider the following:

A ballpark estimate for an editor will run an author about $1000 - $1500. They can expect to pay about $250 + for a book cover. If they lack the skill, formatting your e-book and print edition can run another $200 to $300 dollars. These are all ballpark estimates, but, as you can see, the numbers add up quickly. That does not count advertising, which is crucial if you want to reach an audience that will generate sales. Depending on genre, that can run anywhere from $500 to $1000 per month, per advertising outlet.

Realistically speaking, the average cost for an indie author to publish their novel will be in the $2k range, not including advertising. This also does not reflect the author’s writing time. I know that my first book took a year to write. How much value do you place on that?  How many people would be willing to dedicate a year or more of their life without the expectation to get paid? Apparently we writers are a masochistic lot.

In all likelihood, an author will have to sell nearly 1k e-books just to break even on the initial production costs. I can tell you from experience that, without the help of ads, that milestone will take years to achieve.

Indie authors have a much tougher slog to achieve their literary dreams than legacy house authors, but that doesn’t mean we cannot accomplish it. It just takes more time and creativity.

I recently took a hard look at my earlier works. After doing re-reads, I can tell you I was dismayed to find that many of the more critical reviews were accurate. While the stories themselves are great, the literary errors could dampen the reading experience, especially for critical readers. As a result, I went back and began to re-edit my catalog of books.

 At present, I have re-edited and re-published: Perfect Pawn and Queen’s Gambit, the first two books in the James Maguire series. I have also completed the re-edit of Small Town Secrets, book one in the Alex Taylor series, and I hope to have this book re-published next month, with an updated cover. I am almost finished with the re-edit of Bishop’s Gate. As I re-publish each book I will make an announcement when it is available.  

My goal for 2020 is to give the reader the best literary experience I can by re-editing all of my books in chronological order. It’s the best I can do, unless someone out there knows Henry Cavill, of Netflix’s Witcher fame, and can get him interested in playing the part of James Maguire (Yes, he was the inspiration from the beginning).

Once again, thank you for your continued support. If you love my books leave a review, if you have issues please let me know.

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